Tag Archives: Spanish Flu

You guys remember how in 2009, the news media shat bricks about Swine Flu and how it was going to wipe out a 10th of the human population?

The first time H1N1 (then called Spanish Flu instead of Swine Flu) showed up in 1918 it killed between 10% and 20% of the people who contracted it, with global death estimates between 50 million and 100 million people that year, or somewhere between 3% and 6% of the global population of the day.

The second time it became a big deal was in 1976. In 1976, there was a small outbreak in Fort Dix up in New Jersey. The national response was a HUGE push to immunize the nation. The outbreak never made it out of Fort Dix. 13 men were hospitalized. 1 died. Meanwhile, the vaccine killed 25 and caused 500 more to contract Guillain–Barré Syndrome as a side-effect. On the other hand, people who were immunized back in ’76 showed a significantly higher immune response in 2009 when it popped up again.

In the End-Is-Nigh media storm over Swine Flu in 2009-2010, the WHO has lab-confirmed about 18K deaths from that “global catastrophe”…which would be about .000027% of the world’s population….

Meanwhile, every time the news starts talking about the latest world-ending pandemic, Lysol and Chlorox disinfectant wipes disappear from shelves and their stocks make a solid climb.

….so, next time the news tells you the world is going to end and everyone you know is going to die, just turn it off, because all they’re doing is trying to sell you something….or go buy stock in Lysol and Chlorox.